Monday, May 9, 2011

More fun with Sprint 4G/Clear Wimax

Just a couple of months ago, I made the jump to Verizon Wireless, right after they launched the iPhone 4. And let me tell you, I'm loving it. Verizon's network footprint is crazy huge -- way better than the 3G coverage I was getting on my iPad (AT&T) or any of my previous Android phones (on T-Mobile). Recently I had began to use tethering on the iPhone, using its 3g to connect my work laptop to the internet so I could work at the coffee shop (which had horrible wifi) or while on the road. After a while, I decided to see if my work would spring for a modem for me, so I wouldn't have to pay for that out of pocket.

They did, and I ended up with a shiny new Sprint 3G/4G modem a couple of weeks ago.

I've been using it mostly in my neighborhood (Rogers Park) here in Chicago, and the 3G connection is always solid, if a bit slow. But the Sprint 4G connection? Always poor. ALWAYS. Every single time I end up having some problem. The thing drops me after 10 minutes (or 10 seconds), or just doesn't connect at all. And when it's working, the time it takes to establish a connection is painfully long. It takes so long, I can visibly observe my fingernails getting longer before it establishes.

As you might already know, Sprint 4G is really Clear Wimax. We tried it as our home internet connection about a year ago, and immediately switched back to Comcast.

Now, it's a year later, and Clear Wimax 4G still sucks. It is just flat out the worst connectivity I have ever experienced ever. How is Clear still in business? How is Sprint still tied to this dog of a technology? Can somebody explain it to me? Who PAYS for this? I'm getting it free courtesy of my employer and I STILL want to return it.

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By Al Iverson

Hi, I'm Al Iverson and this is my random blog about nothing in particular. I blog a lot about email over on Spam Resource. I've been on this internet thing for a while. I use Linux every day. I work for an internet company. I'm kind of a big too^H^H^Hdeal.